Wherefore Science Fiction?

I remember being surprised when I learned that "wherefore" actually
means "why." So, when Juliet says, "Wherefore art thou Romeo?" she's
asking why did he have to go and be from the feuding clan. Bummer. But
an interesting vocabulary lesson.

I've been thinking of why I would like to concentrate on science
fiction in my new publishing business, Third Flatiron Publishing. It
seems like SF/Fantasy's golden age may have passed. Fewer publishing
houses seem to be out there. Houses like Tor, which used to be minor
players, are just about all you see on the shelves these days. A few
old superstar authors are still around, like George R.R. Martin, but I
don't see any smash hits coming from the likes of Harlan Ellison or
Gene Wolfe. Of course, some have died, like Ray Bradbury, Arthur
C. Clarke, Roger Zelazny, and Kurt Vonnegut.


As a young reader, I was voracious. Books often afforded an escape
from the realities of life and school, and SF in particular appealed
to the nerd in me. I can unqualifiedly recommend SF as a pathway drug
to academic aptitude.

If you want your budding genius child to ace his or her SATs, try some
of these recommendations from scientist and award-winning SF author
David Brin:

http://open.salon.com/blog/david_brin/2011/11/09/science_fiction_for_young_adults_a_recommended_list

Brin has various assorted reasons for liking books on this long list
(for example, "sense-o-wonder"), but to me the salient point is that
this genre builds strong headbones and imparts a vocabulary
nonpareil. (Of course, even I had to keep a dictionary close by to get
through the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.)

Reading literature favored by fellow geeks will also have the advantage of
facilitating better communication with peers:

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/geekend/identify-the-geeks-in-a-crowd-by-how-they-communicate/6649

I recently joined a couple of online fan forums, like Cool Sci-Fi
(coolscifi.com), where I posted a question asking what is currently
popular. I only got one reply, which was a speculation that steampunk
is where it's at.

OK, fine. I'll buy that, and any of Connie Willis' backward-looking
tomes, for that matter. There's nothing wrong with historical fantasy
or swords and sorcery, as long as it's weird and interesting. But the
era of the space opera seems to have been crushed, as hard science
increasingly drills it into our heads that FTL travel just ain't gonna
happen, baby. Hopefully young Cory Doctorow can hold our hands as we stride
into a brave new world.

With these attitude adjustments in mind, I will try to carry the
banner of speculative fiction (Ellison's term) forward.

With your help, I won't have to change "Wherefore" to "Whither."
Please encourage your kids to read some SF in between video games.

The Passion Curriculum

A few days ago, US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan was on Jon
Stewart's Daily Show. He talked about how Congress had failed to
achieve the requirements of the "No Child Left Behind" Act, and how
states could now seek waivers to NCLB in order to give them more
flexibility to meet high educational standards.

He went on to decry the cutbacks of many programs in the schools, such
as arts and music, language, geography, social sciences, and so
forth. He spoke on behalf of "the Well-Rounded Curriculum."

This made me reflect on my own education and that of my fellow geeks.
Our country is facing a crisis shortage of geeks. At least a million
technical jobs are begging for qualified applicants. But fewer
students feel inclined to study math and science, and they are less
willing to put in the oftentimes long hours of drudgery to excel in a
technical area. They are less resilient and more resigned to failure
if the going gets tough.

In previous posts on this blog, I've identified some actions in the
college and working world where geeks can be encouraged to be more
well-rounded, thus contributing more to society.

But maybe we should back up further, to grade and middle school, to
look at what leads to the successful geek and, better yet, the
well-rounded geek.

Unfortunately, middle school can be hell on earth, both for geeks and
non-geeks alike. Puberty and scholarly rigor both strike
simultaneously. But what doesn't actually kill us makes us stronger,
as the old saying goes.

What middle school should do for us is to teach us how to find our
passions and show us a path toward achieving them. Sampling the
liberal and other arts may sow the seed of a passion.

That passion may open a path that looks impossibily steep when you're
14 years old. Do you like music? A typical musician in the Cincinnati
Orchestra has worked for 15 years to hone his or her skills and
theoretical knowledge of music, an amazingly complex and deep subject.

Just take it one step at a time. Yes, we are coming to realize we are
facing a world where everyone has to become a specialist in a
technical field. And even then there is no guarantee of a good paying
job. But your efforts will pay off in providing you a rich inner life.

This is where being well rounded will save your life. While you work
hard and fight for the job of your dreams, you will have the
resiliency you got from your well-rounded curriculum to get you by. If
you get out of middle school without identifying at least one passion
you can get lost in, your teachers have failed you. You need that
experience in order to be able to identify the next passion in life as
it comes along.

Third Flatiron Publishing: My New Venture

I've recently begun a new publishing venture, Third Flatiron
Publishing, LLC. I plan to publish eBooks of the science
fiction/fantasy genre.

I've long been interested in trying my hand at fiction writing as
well, but this publishing thing is new. As I explored the marketplace
for writing, I discovered that the bar for getting into publishing is
much lower nowadays than when I started out as a writer/editor in the
1970s. Ebooks are the coming thing, and I hope to get on the wave.

It's easier to write a business plan because it's easier to survey the
marketplace via such resources as Duotrope.com and Ralan.com. It's
easier to set up a "storefront" via such services as BlueHost.com, which
offers easy website management tools such as liveSite.

It's easier to distribute online via services such as Smashwords.com. Yes,
they will take a cut of everything that sells, but they provide
services like formatting for a variety of eReaders, providing free
ISBNs, and distributing to vendors such as Barnes and Noble and iTunes.

I believe that three items will determine the success or failure of
Third Flatiron: content, pricing, and positioning.

Content: I'm thrilled that I am already getting strong content from
writers all over the Internet who are beginning to submit to Third
Flatiron. My first three issues will be SF/Fantasy anthologies. I
should be able to purchase a dozen or so good stories for each
anthology.

Pricing: I still have a lot to learn in this regard. I fully expect to
lose money at first while I'm still learning. At first I'm going to
pay writers a flat rate, but if they sell well, I'll take my cut but
offer them some royalties.

Positioning: Ditto. This will be the trickiest area, I think. I've
spent my life as a creative writer rather than a business-oriented
publisher, so I will need to learn how to market my writers. I
certainly plan to do what I can. Facebook and blogging ought to help.

So, if you want to write good SF and get paid a little something to do
it, check out our site at http://www.thirdflatiron.com.

Decemberists at Boulder Theater

Mountain Man opened for the Decemberists last night at the Boulder
Theater. This trio of young ladies did a mostly a cappella set that
showed off their haunting voices. On some songs, they sounded like
Gillian Welch and Alison Krauss, blending a raw sound with a sweet
sound, while on others they whimsically twisted melodies like Joanna
Newsom. They even did a creditable job on medieval rounds. They
weren't musicians, but their voices made admirable instruments in
themselves. Amazingly, the audience was completely quiet during the
whole performance.

The Boulder Theater has an unfortunate tendency not to introduce
opening acts. Sometimes it isn't necessary, but I hadn't heard of this
band before. My only complaint is that when I first heard their name,
I thought it was "Mountain Maam." Sounded right to me...

The Portland-based Decemberists band came with a large contingent,
including organ, accordian, pedal steel guitar, plus the dulcet singing and
fiddle playing of former Nickel Creek member Sara Watkins.

Lead singer/songwriter Colin Meloy led with "Down by the Water" from
their new album, "The King Is Dead." While Boulder philosophically is
a sister city to Portland, large bodies of water don't occupy a large
part of our pysches. For example, a recent song by Colorado singer
Danielle Ate the Sandwich mentions crawling under a barbed wire fence
to visit a lake.

Meloy got the audience to participate in a rousing sea shanty by
assigning them the part of a person being swallowed by a whale. Much
shrieking and moaning was required. Another audience favorite was "16
Military Wives."

Meloy is a master of romantic songwriting as well, on tunes such as
"O, Valencia!" The new song, "We Both Go Down Together," about
star-crossed love would bring tears to the eyes of any couple.

A warm ending to a snowy night was "June Hymn," a lush recounting of
the return of spring. In land-locked Boulder, we realized yet again
that the spring the Decemberists know is hothouse exotic to us--ivy in
trees? Yellow bonnets? Training jasmine?

The Bravery in Breck

We trundled up to Breckenridge this weekend to see The Bravery, who
played before a small crowd for the Spring Massive (end of the ski
season).

This post-punk band out of New York has spent most of the past five
years being huge in the U.K. Amazingly (to me), the show was
free. Maybe they haven't been as big in the U.S., but I felt they have
a Springsteen-like charisma and thought the show was fantastic. There
were a lot of kids in the audience, so lead singer Sam Endicott showed
admirable restraint and only dropped the F bomb once or twice, while
bass player Mike Hindert kept his clothes on.

Endicott has a Robert Smith-like voice, so some of their songs sound
like the Cure. But the band can also rock hard. Drumming talent is key
to punk rock (think Green Day, for whom they opened last year), and
Anthony Burulcich has it in spades.

Highlights were "Believe," "An Honest Mistake," and "Time Won't Let Me
Go."

The band attempted to do a song in praise of summer, "Hey Sunshiney
Day." I think Coloradans are spoiled and believe sunshine is a
birthright. Songs with this theme (e.g., "One Day Like This" by Elbow)
are a lifeline to people suffering the drear of another gray day.

Now to download some more of their songs...

Avatar's Tender Interlude

By now millions have seen James Cameron's ground-breaking new 3D epic,
"Avatar." Although it is a rollicking good time at the cinema, there
have been numerous criticisms, including its supposed admiration for
war and its simplistic and somewhat stereotypical quasi-racist
viewpoint (ie., the natives are nobler than the ruthless civilized
invaders, but once the white guy hero is converted, he leads them out
of their predicament).

I have to say I enjoyed it thoroughly, in the same vein as Lord of the
Rings, where it was necessary to rise up and kick evil-doers'
butts--more than once.

And, although the white guy hero Jake Sully did indeed lead the
natives to victory (albeit probably temporary), I think the movie
detractors have skimmed over the role played by his mentor in making
this an extraordinary tale of love and redemption. We've all heard that
behind every successful man there's a woman. In Jake's case, there was
Neytiri, a 9-foot tall blue woman who was more powerful than the
forklift Ripley used to beat up the Alien mother. Neytiri is destined
to be the next co-leader of her people, the Na'vi, and she reluctantly
agrees to teach him the ropes (literally).

Jake falls in love with Neytiri, and with her coaching is able to hold
is own with the other Na'vi warriors. He even is able to ride a flying
dinosaur that only a few natives have domesticated. Neytiri in turn
falls in love with Jake's Avatar, even though she knows he is not one
of their people.

One scene made the movie for me. Setup for the scene: The hero has been judged to be a traitor to the human race, and a battle with the Na'vi ensues. The military has been dispatched to seek and destroy the hidden encampment containing the capsule linking Jake's human body to his Avatar, tossing his body out into the unbreathable Pandora atmosphere.

During the battle, Neytiri sees her mate go unconscious. She has seen this before. She immediately assesses the situation and searches
for the human camp. Inside she spots the capsule. Beside
it is a small human who is suffocating. She recognizes him as Jake,
picks him up, and cradles him tenderly in her arms. She
administers an oxygen mask and hopes for the best. Instead of dying, Jake
revives and is able to rally his people and turn the tide of the
battle.

As in Titanic and The Abyss, this small scene demonstrated again for
me Cameron's mastery in portraying the faith and willing sacrifice of
true love. No amount of detonations or whizbang 3D effects can compare.

I Am Woman, Hear Me Geek

The number of women majoring in Computer Science made some gains in
the 1980s, but began a precipitous slide in the 1990s. And in today's tough
job market, it is not an easy ride, even if you're a female.

Although my computer science education began as a "nontraditional"
(meaning: older) student, I immediately became aware that it was
highly competitive, and the number of females in class was low. In
order to succeed, you needed to survive classes intended to "separate
the men from the boys." I had a good academic track record and was
used to competing scholastically.

What I didn't have was the sporting mentality. The idea was not only
to get to the goal (and get your praise), but also to run over the
competition. The guys all seemed to get this, as did the male
instructors. If you asked a fellow student what yesterday's
assignment was, you were likely to get a smirk for an answer.

What about the few female students and instructors? Were their faces
being pushed into the muck? Were they indignantly spluttering as they
flung mud aside like GI Jane? Nope, 'fraid not. They were generally
helpful and supportive. What's with that, women? Are you a man or a
mouse? I think the answer is that they are women first and geeks
second. If called upon to act like a rodent, they tend to lose
interest.

How can you keep your hard-won female or minority geeks from scurrying
away? The following advice applies to both men and women:

1. Get or be a mentor. Although I eventually completed my master's
degree, I suffered many moments of self-doubt. What made the moments
bearable was having a mentor, who empathized and provided suggestions
for survival strategies. The same self-doubt happens to male students,
but they are conditioned to tough it out. Females do better if they
have someone to share the suffering with. Whether male or female, the
INTJ/Green personality geek wants friends, preferably smart ones.

Having a mentor makes you feel valued.

Mentors commonly feel that they learn as much by mentoring as they
teach. It is gratifying to feel appreciated.

2. At work, let females get a word in edgewise at meetings. You might
find they have some good ideas if encouraged to express them. The
stereotype that women will chatter aimlessly about their feelings at
meetings is bogus, because they are rarely given a chance to chatter
at all.

3. When bonding with fellows, allow females to participate in
conversations about sports and technical issues. Female geeks like
these topics. What they don't like are long discussions about
people you used to work with that they never met. Notice the new
friends sitting in front of you.

4. Keep stretching your geek's comfort level. If she has never led a
quality assurance team, rotate the leadership among the team
members. The rest of the team may see that they are safe with your
geek as both leader and co-worker.

5. Be scrupulously fair in handing out promotions and raises. Trust is
crucial, and once lost causes the geek to seek other
opportunities. When justifying why a raise was given to someone
else, the logically minded geek must find nothing to argue with.
Do not let your female geek think she might be worth less than a
male geek.

6. Encourage "showing your stuff." This can be done on the job via
plum assignments, or it could be by giving back to the
community. This is a two-way street. Just as you enjoy mentoring,
your female or minority protege will enjoy being able to show
others how they got where they are and what they do. The community
in turn will see that being a geek is not all about being alone in
a cubicle and that science and IT offer interesting and relevant
career opportunities.